


home again

by siojo



Series: Younger Luffy AU [7]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Ambiguous Izou/Thatch, Luffy Being Luffy, M/M, Young Luffy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-04
Updated: 2016-07-04
Packaged: 2018-07-20 01:32:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7385569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/siojo/pseuds/siojo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The ride to Fuusha isn't so bad, except Marco and Ace decide to destroy a Marine Base and Luffy tries to recruit the Bounty Hunter that they save.</p>
            </blockquote>





	home again

Zoro has been hanging from this pole for four days, his hands strapped above his head and the pressure on his wrists almost too much since his legs couldn’t hold him any longer. The heat beats down on his head and it throbs with each beat of his heart, his throat drier than the ground around him.

“And this,” A voice states suddenly from somewhere to his left. “Is what we call an idiot. I don’t know why he was stupid enough to let the Marines lock him up, but that he was.”

It takes effort to lift his head, spotting a man leaning over the fence, a child beside him. Both of them with their heads tilted to the side, curiousity bright on their faces.

“Please get down before you’re spotted.” A different man sighs. “We’re suppose to be avoiding notice for a few more days until we hit your home island. You’re pretty obvious.”

The man on the fence grins behind him, “Come on, if we don’t tease this dork then we’ll have nothing better to do. You were the one that wouldn’t let us stop on Syrup before we hit Fuusha. We could have gotten supplies there but you decided to go to the island with a Marine base.”

“Yeah!” The kid shouts. “Hey mister!”

Zoro grunts.

“Why are you all tied up?”

“I made a bet.”

The man beside him groans, “You don’t make bets with the likes of Iron Jaw! He’s a dick, he’s gonna kill you before you can win, who taught you how to be a person?”

“Probably the same one who taught you,” The one Zoro couldn’t see replies, before that one too appears. “He’s a bounty hunter, it’s not like Luffy’s going to do anything so stupid.”

“Bounty hunting isn’t stupid!” Zoro defends.

Luffy sticks his tongue out, “I wanna be the Pirate King, no way am I gonna be a stinky bounty hunter.”

“Pirates have more fun,” The first man agrees. “Are we saving this idiot? We already planned on reducing this place to rubble, might as well do it now then head off to see Makino. He’s not that bad, even if he’s a bounty hunter.”

“Yes. Luffy,” The kid perks up. “Why don’t you go and make sure that the villagers stay out the way. Izo and Thatch are probably still passed out and you wouldn’t want anyone to get hurt, would you?”

“But Marco, I wanna fight!” Luffy whines.

Marco raises an eyebrow, “Tell your brother that he isn’t allowed to fight Marines until he’s older.”

“No fighting Marines until I think you’re old enough.” The man repeats calmly. “And that won’t been for eight years.”

“But Ace!”

“No buts. I didn’t fight Marines until I was seventeen, you don’t get to fight Marines until you’re seventeen.” Ace rolls his eyes as Luffy opens his mouth. “And Gramps doesn’t count, you don’t fight Gramps, he just punches you in the head.”

“But Ace!”

Ace laughs, “No buts, get your rear back to Izo and Thatch or I’ll eat all the meat on the ship.”

That is the worst threat that Zoro has ever heard, but Luffy’s eyes go wide with horror, like Ace has threatened to take away the most precious thing that Luffy owns. He drops out of sight and shouts something at Ace and Marco before his voice vanishes into the distance.

“I will never understand your brother’s obsession with meat.” It’s said in the same tone that Zoro’s heard parents use when a child does something they can’t understand. “So, Mr Bounty Hunter, you want us to let you go before we curb stop the Marines or after?”

There really isn’t much of a battle, Zoro had figured them both for Grand Line Pirates and he hadn’t been wrong. Not when Ace’s shirt had been torn in battle and fallen off to reveal the Whitebeard Crest on his back.

“That was fun,” Ace declares after the battle is over. “See Marco, we had so much fun beating up Marines that Pops won’t notice a few days off on our schedule.”

“Pops will notice. Haruta will probably call soon and complain how you can’t stick to a plan.” Marco mutters, trying to tap blood off his sandals. “Izo will be placed in charge of the itinerary.”

“Ugh,” Ace shudders. “Hey, Bounty Hunter, these were yours right?”

Zoro nods, all three of his swords safe and sound, “Yes.”

“Cool. Here.” Ace pulls a dagger from nowhere to cut off the ropes. “And have fun. We have more places to be.”

“That’s it?”

Marco nods, “Sure, you don’t think we want something do you?” He turns to Ace. “Do we want something?”

“Not unless he’s got blackmail on somebody, usually I ask Ray for that stuff. Do you?”

“I don’t think so?” Zoro wonders if all Grand Line Pirates are this crazy, Marco had turned into a bird for a while and Ace was apparently made of fire. Nothing makes sense anymore. “I don’t deal with Marines too often.”

Ace hums, “I can understand that.” He grins. “Well, I don’t want anything. Marco?”

“I’ve got nothing.” Marco agrees. “So you’re free to continue hunting down bounties. Not ours, because we’ll break you, but others.”

“You’re just letting me go?” Zoro hasn’t interacted with any pirate that he hasn’t actively been hunting, but this seems a little strange. “Like it’s nothing?”

Ace shrugs, “I mean, we don’t have any reason to keep you. Has he done something to one of the family?”

“Doesn’t go into the Grand Line.” Marco shrugs. “He’s never touched one of ours. I mean, he could try with us, our bounties went through a boost a few weeks ago. So that means we would be worth the effort, if he could take one of us down.”

“But I mean could he take us both?”

Zoro has to say this is the first time that anyone’s argued about his ability to capture them, but he’s already pretty sure that he won’t be able to win against either of them, not with how quickly they won and took out the building that had housed the Marines. It looks like an explosion went off, not two men with their fists and a hint of fire.

“Monkey D Luffy!” Zoro jolts at the shout. “You are grounded! No meat for dinner!”

“NO!” Luffy, who appears from behind the fence shouts in horror. “No, Ace, I was good. I just-”

“Didn’t listen,” Ace finishes arms crossing over his chest. “Grounded. Marco, back me up.”

Marco nods, “Grounded.”

“Thank you. You are grounded Luffy, I told you that if you didn’t want to be left with Ray that you would have to listen to what Marco, Izo, Thatch, and I told you. And you haven’t.”

Zoro hasn’t heard such a disappointed parent voice since Kuina’s father had caught them misbehaving in the dojo. Ace doesn’t look that much older then him either.

“How old were you when you had a kid?”

Ace sputters and Marco starts laughing, his head tipping back and one of his hands covering his mouth. Luffy just blinks in confusion until they both get themselves under control.

“I’m nineteen!” Ace shouts, mortified. “And I’m not Luffy’s dad, I’m just his guardian. His gramps adopted me. We’re siblings.”

“Wouldn’t his grandfather adopting you make you his uncle?” Zoro knows less about adoption then he does cooking, but he’s fairly certain that is how it works.

“My family life is a mess,” Ace admits. “I joined Pops crew. It was bound to get weird at some point.”

Marco hums, “That it was.”

“Do you need a ride to another island or?” Ace asks. “We’ve got to go, can’t be on the run and get captured this early. I would never hear the end of it.”

Zoro is surrounded by crazy people.

“Hey!” Luffy shouts, to add to the chaos. “You should join my pirate crew!”

–

“You are nine! Nine! You don’t need a pirate crew!” Ace shouts, throwing his arms up in the air and looking helplessly to where Marco has settled their guest. “He’s going to be in almost thirty by the time you can be a pirate! He’ll have already started on his dream without you.”

“But I want him to join my crew.” Luffy protests. “You and Marco can join too!”

Marco snorts, “I’m loyal to Pops, Luffy. If I haven’t joined Shanks after years of him offering, I’m not going to join you.”

“I’m going to be the Pirate King!”

Zoro raises a hand, “What is going on? Who are you people and what did I get myself into?”

“Marco the Phoenix, that’s Portgas D Ace, and his little brother, Monkey D Luffy. Elsewhere on this ship are our brothers, Izo and Thatch, who are probably doing something stupid.” Marco answers.

“As in Whitebeard and Spade? I thought the last real news on the Spade Pirates were that the Captain had challenged Whitebeard and failed?” Zoro has rumors galore. Bounty hunters gossip and he hears things from the rest of them, even when he tries to keep out of it.

Marco smirks, “That is the lie we perpetuated. Ace joined up about a hundred days after his fight with Jinbi. Ace asked Pops to keep his change of status secret to avoid his Gramps.”

“And it doesn’t matter now?”

“No, something came up.” Marco agrees. “So, we’re headed to Fuusha. Just across some mountains from Goa, want us to leave you there?”

Zoro nods slowly, “That sounds fine.”

“Good. There isn’t much between here and there.” He glances to where Luffy and Ace are still arguing. “I better go get Thatch before those two get hungry.”

Marco doesn’t trust Zoro, then again Marco trusts very few people and most of them aren’t bounty hunters, but Ace can take care of himself mostly and Luffy’s gotten better with his rubber to not twitch the wrong way and go flying into the ocean.

“Lunchtime?” Thatch asks, stumbling to the door with Izo’s shirt on instead of his own. “Already?”

“Change.” Marco states. “For Ace’s sanity.”

Marco’s own has gone missing since Pops added more people to the crew. He knows that Thatch has slept in Izo’s room since Teach had stabbed him, unable to feel safe in his old room and the Mini Moby can comfortably fit a division, but the fear is still there. Hovering just at the edges, that Teach will come back to finish what he started.

Marco knows there are two beds in the room, he does. He doesn’t want to know if they’re using both of them or not. He’s not ready for that kind of knowledge. Just like he hates knowing about any other relationships that might pop up in the crew, far too much hassle trying to balance the crew after messy breakups.

“Ah,” Thatch stares at his chest for a long moment. “I..I’ll do that.”

The door slams behind him and Marco can hear the attempts to muffle shrieks from within. His feet are glued to the ground and Marco isn’t proud of it, he wants to leave before Thatch gets back and tries to give him some sort of explanation. Marco doesn’t want it, because if it confirms a relationship he is honor-bound to inform Haruta so that she can start paying out the bets in the betting pool.

Marco hates the betting pools.

But Thatch returns, offers no explanation and drags Marco towards the deck.

“Who is this!” Thatch shouts, pointing to where Zoro has fallen asleep against the railing. “Did we start picking up strays?”

Ace blinks up from his argument, Luffy sitting on the ground with his fingers in his ears and singing that song he was fond of about weather and heads. He grins.

“This is Zoro, we saved because he was stupid and got captured by Marines. By the way if Haruta calls, we went to Fuusha went to the Marine base and back to Fuusha. We didn’t attack and destroy a Marine base before reaching Fuusha.”

Thatch looks horrified, “You beat up Marines? Without me?”

“An entire BASE!” Luffy enthuses, how had he known what was happening? “And Ace melted this one guy’s metal jaw!”

“Luffy is grounded,” Ace says as if just remembering. “No meat for lunch for him, please.”

Marco likes the confusion that crosses Thatch’s face, it’s revenge for allowing Marco to have to consider that Thatch and Izo might not be as platonic as he had always believed. Marco has enough issues, he doesn’t need to borrow anymore.

–

Thatch isn’t sure what to make of the tiny port town that Ace has them sail to, it’s barely a smattering of houses and a few buildings that are obviously for food or rest. Luffy was already talking to the Bounty hunter that Marco and Ace had picked up about the people he was going to visit and the places he wanted to see.

Ace hadn’t been as excited by the town. He had nodded to a few buildings and given three or four names, but hadn’t had much more to say. Like he hadn’t spent much time in the town before.

Which is weird. This is the place that Ace grew up in, it should make him happy to visit.

“I can’t wait to see Makino!” Luffy comments, bouncing excitedly. “She’s really nice!”

“Remind me to avoid the mayor. Last time I saw him was when Makino and I lied that you were asleep in the bar.” Ace mutters.

Izo leans in, “Where was he?”

“In one of the bags on my little boat.” Ace answers easily. “I stole him from the island with Makino’s help. Hopefully they think he snuck on and I won’t have to deal with a lecture about stealing children.” Ace shrugs. “I’m not too worried.”

“About?” The fuck has Ace done in his life if he didn’t even take Luffy publically.

“Them. I’ve got too much else to worry about, why worry about what they think of me running off with Lu? Besides, he’s happy, healthy, and learning. He wouldn’t have gotten that here. He would have been treated indulgently, the only grandson of Monkey D Garp, their hero. And the son of Monkey D Dragon, who would kill them if they revealed where he sent his only son.”

Thatch will never understand Ace. Sometimes he makes sense, with manners and proper words and acting like a responsible adult, and other times, like after telling them all about his father, he sneaks into the kitchen with Luffy on his heels and eats all the ice cream on the ship because of stress. And now it sounds like Ace hasn’t spent much time in his home town.

“So you didn’t grow up here?” Izo asks for him.

Ace laughs, “I was raised by mountain bandits. They weren’t bad, but they didn’t want to care for me and only did because Gramps forced them to. Mostly I raised myself and I didn’t see them much.”

“All alone?”

“I,” Ace tugs his hat down over his eyes. “I had a friend, a brother, for a while. He, he died when we were young. Spent six years mostly by myself until Luffy came along.”

Thatch feels bile rise in his throat. Six years, Luffy arrived when Ace was sixteen, that means that Ace’s only friend died when he was ten. That he had spent six years with no one.

“You must have been lonely,” Izo offers.

Ace grins, not happy but twisted with something sad, “I went crazy. I use to imagine him because I was so alone.” He shakes his head at their looks. “I don’t anymore, but for a long time it was…unpleasant. Luffy doesn’t know.” Ace looks away. “I don’t want him to know.”

Thatch has never been more grateful to understand why Ace stole Luffy and never looked back. Has never been more disgusted that someone could shove a child somewhere and forget that it existed.

“Oh shit,” Ace mutters, glancing over the crowd that’s started to gather at the dock. “Hey Makino!”

“MAKINO!” Luffy parrots louder and waving excitedly.

“Luffy! Ace!” She shouts back waving just as much as Luffy. “Welcome back!”

Luffy barely waits until they’re docked, bouncing to throw his arms around Makino’s waist and holding tight. Ace follows, shoving his hands into his pockets and hunching his shoulders just a touch. He pauses just short of where Luffy and Makino are, shuffling his feet uncertainly.

“Ace,” Makino smiles. “Welcome back.”

“It’s good to be back.” Ace agrees easily. “I brought some of my new crew to visit. If they ever get off the ship!”

Marco rolls his eyes, “Maybe we want to make sure it doesn’t sail away without us, Ace!”

“Maybe you’re just a stick in the mud, Marco.”

“Stop flirting in front of Luffy!” Thatch shouts. “There are children present, you should be more responsible!”

“I am totally responsible.” Ace comments.

“You don’t get to say that, you destroyed a Marine base less than three days ago!”

–

Makino is glad to see the new Ace. The Ace who smiles and allows people other than Luffy to touch him. It’s a stark difference from the paranoid, lonely Ace that had set sail from Fuusha with his younger brother. From the boy that hadn’t spoken in her presence for weeks until he was certain that she wasn’t going to abandon Luffy or take Luffy from him.

“Thatch,” The man with the pompadour introduces himself with a grin. “Head Chef of the Whitebeard Pirates and Fourth division commander.”

The other man, hair long and wearing a kimono goes next, “Izo, Sixteenth division commander, also of the Whitebeard Pirates. Ace has told us much about you.”

“Nothing too bad, I hope?” Makino jokes. Shanks had spoken of the Whitebeard Pirates, and not in the way that he spoke of other crews, it was more respect than fear. And she trusts Ace, he’s not a bad kid, for all that he’s confused by a great many things. “It’s nice to meet you both as well.”

Ace shoves the blond man towards her, grabbing the man’s wrist when shoving doesn’t work to pull.

“Marco the Phoenix, this is Makino. I told you about her before. Makino this is,” Ace flushes a shade of red that Makino doesn’t think she’s seen in years. “My boyfriend.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Marco.” Makino says brightly. “If you hurt Ace, I’m sure that Shanks will be willing to help me kill you.”

Marco blinks slowly, “Are you sure she’s just a normal citizen? She just threatened me with Shanks.”

“Ace and I think she and Shanks are dating.” Luffy calls from where he’s already gotten lunch from Makino’s cook. “So she has to be scary.”

“Huh, that would make sense. I’m Marco the Phoenix, First division commander and First Mate of the Whitebeard Pirates. Ace speaks highly of you.” Marco says easily.

Makino likes him. Marco is polite and treats Luffy like he’s important instead of just a way to keep his relationship with Ace running smoothly. Luffy had climbed up Marco to ride on his shoulders and Marco had allowed it, with the long suffering look that Makino has seen on the parents of various children in the village.

Ace has the same look as Luffy tries to talk with his mouth full, forcing Luffy to swallow before he tries again. It’s sweet. The three of them. A family.

She doesn’t wrinkle her nose, but she wants to. Dragon has to know, he knows almost everything that goes on in the world, so he has to know what his son is doing. Which is sad. There are far too many fathers that aren’t there for their children. Makino should start making a list, it could start with Monkey D Garp. The saddest part is, Makino doesn’t think that the list would ever end.

“And your friend sleeping in the corner?” Makino finally asks.

Ace glances at the man, “He’s Zoro, a bounty hunter who got caught up in a bet with some Marine’s asshole kid. Marco and I beat up the Marines and let him go, brought him here so the Marines that came to replace the ones we fought wouldn’t arrest him. He’s headed to Goa, I assume.”

“The blew up a building!” Luffy enthuses. “It was awesome! And Ace melted the Marine’s jaw!”

“It was made of metal,” Ace assures her. “I didn’t melt a real jaw.”

Makino tilts her head, “Who has a metal jaw?”

“That’s what I said!” Thatch shouts throwing his hands up in the air. “Why would you do that to yourself? But he did. It was weird, Marco drew a picture.”

Marco obligingly withdraws a scrap of paper with the picture. The man does look rather odd, but Makino has seen odd looking people before. Garp wears a full suit in uniform and he has pictures of his acquaintances, including a man that wears a full sized dog head with a hole of his face to jut out of, and wanted posters always have something interesting to show off.

“I’m glad that you came to visit,” Makino says after Luffy is asleep upstairs. “But I thought you wouldn’t be coming back for years?”

Ace wrinkles his nose, “Things are happening, it’s complicated.” Makino wonders if anything in Ace’s life has ever not been complicated. “Our job is to be a distraction, to make it look like I snuck into Whitebeard’s crew and stole three of his men and a ship, so Pops can contact his allies for help without looking suspicious.”

“Couldn’t he take you down himself? Wouldn’t the Marines been suspicious anyway?”

“No,” Marco answers. “I’m not the First Mate for nothing, and my Devil’s fruit is rather rare. Only three of the type exist. The Phoenix isn’t just an moniker, it’s what I am.” His arm turns into a wing. “I’m immortal, as long as it’s not any of the things that can take down a Devil’s fruit user, I don’t stay injured.”

“Ace spent a hundred days gunning for Pops’ head,” Izo continues. “And he got closer than we like to admit on several occasions. With a bit of training while we’re on our trip, he’ll be quite the pride of the fleet. He’s already our Second division commander, he just needs some polish.”

“And a bit of Haki training,” Ace mutters to himself. “Thatch’s a division commander too. He’s not ready to take on an admiral by himself or anything, but he’s gone toe to toe with Gramps a couple of times and wasn’t squashed like a bug.”

Thatch rolls his eyes, giving Ace a look that promises revenge, “And Izo’s one of the best snipers on the sea. I think he could Yassop a challenge.”

“And Luffy? Is he going to be safe in all of this?” Makino asks.

“As safe as he was when I took him from here the first time.” Ace promises. “Ray, a friend of my mom’s, will get word if we get injured rather quickly, he’ll be there as fast as he can be.”

Makino supposes that’s the best she’s going to get. Luffy wouldn’t be content to stay behind and even with two years of people that care for him, Makino is sure that Ace would rather lose one of his arms then leave his brother behind.

–

“Why are we going up the mountain,” Izo asks finally, a third of the way up the trail, Luffy still mostly asleep in Ace’s arms and Marco carrying a basket of plates and drinks.

“You wanted to see where I grew up, to do that we have to go up the mountain and past Dadan’s house. It’s fine, I had Makino pack enough for lunch, dinner, and breakfast. It’s a bit of a climb and it’ll be dark long before we reach the village if you want to have a real look around.” Ace answers, still moving forward.

Ace hasn’t seen this place in two years and how little it has changed compared to some of the other islands they’ve been to is horrifying. It’s like it’s been stuck in time since the moment that Ace and Luffy left, like it’s frozen until someone important appears to make it carry on.

“What are you doing here brat?” Ace spins to find Dadan, her arms crossed over her chest. “I thought you had taken off for good.”

“Just visiting, Is my place still where it use to be?” Ace asks curiously.

Dadan snorts, “Of course it is. No one’s touched it since you vanished with the smaller brat. Grap raised a fuss when he realized that both of you were gone.”

“He’s a fussy old man.” Ace agrees. “Thanks. We’ll be around for the night, so don’t worry about any strange noises, it’ll probably be one of us killing something.”

“Glad to see you both aren’t dead,” She says before vanishing back into her house.

“Ace?” Marco asks.

“That was Dadan, she’s the head of the bandits that raised me.” Ace answers. “My place is this way.”

Luffy makes Ace drop him and runs ahead, vanishing into the trees before anyone can stop him. Ace strolls in, ignoring the looks that the others send him. Luffy lived her for a year, just barely, but that’s long enough for Ace to drill the route from the mountain path to the tree house into Luffy’s head. He won’t get lost this close.

“I was expecting this to be smaller,” Thatch says when they’re staring up at the immaculate tree house. “Much smaller.”

“My,” Ace takes a steadying breath through his nose. “Sabo and I were ambitious little fuckers.”

They had been. The tree house was huge compared to the ones that Ace had seen most children using since he had left Fuusha, though it didn’t have walls like most of the others.

“Your books are gone!” Luffy shouts, already having clambered inside.

“I had Makino pack up most of the stuff we left!” Ace answers scrambling up to look around. He spun the ship’s wheel with a fond smile before he raised an eyebrow. “Might be a tight fit for all of us.”

Marco hums, “It’s nice. Should we set up lunch?”

Ace picked up a slightly rusted pipe from the ground, spinning it in his hands. “I’ll go get it.” He looks up to where Luffy’s hurried to the watch point. “Watch him, I’ll only be a little bit.”

“Hm.” Marco agrees.

The forest hasn’t changed that much since Ace last hunted through it, the gators are still at the same point, though they seem to have almost outgrown it there are so many of them. Ace takes down four of them, dragging them back by their tails with ease, humming as he goes.

“What is that?” Thatch shouts, voice almost high pitched in his yelling. “What?”

“Lunch!” Ace announces. “Luffy’s gonna need his own and me too, plus I wasn’t sure how much you, Izo, and Marco would eat. So I made sure there was lots.”

“Those are huge!”

Ace blinks at them, “There’s bigger animals here, and one of the gators is big as Gramps. I usually leave him alone and he leaves me alone.”

“Marco!” Thatch cries. “Ace is fighting giant animals!”

“Seems efficient. Doesn’t have to hunt as much.” Marco comments from where he’s followed Luffy into the ‘crow’s nest’. “Oi, don’t you dare drop down from here.” He grabs Luffy by the back of the shirt. “Nice try.”

“But Marco!”

Ace grins. He wonders what Sabo would think of him now.

–

Sabo is going to kill whoever is raising Dragon’s son.

It’s time for his weekly meet up with Luffy, a checkup to ensure that he’s eating enough and well cared for, something that had to be done since there wasn’t a spy on Whitebeard’s ship and they hadn’t found anyone willing to do the job for them in all the years that they had been operating.

Only, Sabo glances at the empty room, there isn’t a Luffy. There isn’t Luffy or any of his things. It doesn’t look like he was captured, it would have been harder to sneak into the room if something had happened to Luffy.

“Sabo?” Koala whispers from outside. “What’s going on?”

“He’s gone.” Sabo answers.

Koala scrambles in through the window, “What do you mean he’s gone?” She blinks at the empty room. “What about his brother?”

“Across the hall,” Sabo answers, lifting the mattress and despairing of the mess that still lurks under the bed.

Koala is gone between the space of one moment and the next, returning just as silently, her mouth twisted in confusion, “All personal items have been removed from the room. Similar in nature to this one.” She narrows her eyes. “Something is going on.”

“My thoughts exactly.” Sabo sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Alright. What do we know about his brother?”

“Sabo, that was your job.” Koala says softly.

Sabo makes a noise, low in his throat, of horror. He had meant to look into the person raising Luffy, but Dragon seemed to know the man and had waved off concerns about the reliability of them instead of taking Luffy back to Garp. And the last time he had seen the man with his orange, seriously, hat it had left Sabo with a throbbing headache that had taken days to fade. He didn’t want to know about the rest of his history is just his face upset Sabo’s brain.

“Fuck.” Sabo mutters. “Alright. Who do we know who can get us information?”

“Silvers Rayleigh. He watched Luffy while the man attacked Whitebeard a few years back and they seemed to be on good terms. I think he claimed that Silvers knew his mother?” Koala narrows her eyes in thought. “Can’t we just ask Dragon?”

They could.

They could ask Dragon, except that means that Sabo will have to admit that he didn’t take as much time looking into that part of his job as he was suppose to. He’s the second of the Revolutionary Army, he has too much work to do then to look up facts about a man that doesn’t mean anything in the long term.

“Do we have a name?” Sabo asks finally.

Koala nods, “Portgas D Ace, he’s nineteen and Second division commander for Whitebeard.” She tilts her head. “Raised on Fuusha island by Monkey D Garp’s hand.”

“Does Dragon know his father’s picking up stray children?”

“Sir, I don’t think anyone wants to try and stop Garp. And the boss did send his own son to his father.”

Sabo keeps his mouth shut. He had been against the idea, for some reason he had thought that Garp would be a poor choice to raise a child, he had no idea where the feeling came from.

Maybe he had met Ace?

He shakes his head, that’s ridiculous, he was a noble’s son. He probably had never seen the forest except at a distance.


End file.
